KIRKUS REVIEW

From a wealthy, snarky social scene to a fat camp resembling “a foreign country filled with geeks,” 16-year-old Riley’s narration is hilarious and fresh. She’s busy being in unrequited love with male best friend D (who doesn’t even have the “decency” to be gay) and IMing with a stranger online when her distracted father and almost-stepmother “Elizabitch” exile her to fat camp. Saucy Eric, the camp director’s son, picks her up from the train station and they begin to trade barbs full of delicious sexual tension. Why is her picture already in his pocket, and should she say “You’re a freak” or “Let’s make out” or “I like your nail polish”? (It’s red.) Lying is a big theme; Riley knows all along that she’s fabulous and fine without any weight-loss lessons, but a major crying meltdown helps her open up emotionally. Despite a few narrative glitches (the fat camp’s brochure erroneously and inexplicably claims that it “specialize[s]…in eating disorders”), this girl has flair. (Fiction. YA)

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